Dumplings to Sip From

Image

Shanghai Bun is tucked away in a corner of a strip mall.CreditMatt Rainey for The New York Times

By Phoebe Nobles

May 3, 2014

You’ve got to be looking for Shanghai Bun to find the place, set unobtrusively in the far corner of a modest strip mall in spitting distance of New Jersey Transit’s Princeton Junction station — unless you are in the market for bath fixtures, and stumble upon it. In that case, lucky you.

But fans of its sister restaurants, Shanghai Bun in Matawan and the Shanghai Noodle House in Edison, are certainly looking for this new spot, squinting at the drive-by strip-mall sign dominated by the pink-and-orange bubble letters of a national doughnut chain. Sorry, doughnuts, with your holes in the middle. The soup dumpling has arrived in Princeton Junction and is filled with fresh pork and a tangy, gelatin-rich broth.

Almost every table seems to order the soup dumplings. Six of them arrive clinging to their steamer basket like limpets, their homemade flour skins pleasingly sticky. Sealed inside, an orb of ground pork has cooked in broth that has coaxed the most out of beef and chicken bones. Nibble a hole just large enough that you can sip the soup, so rich it could stand up and walk. A vinegar sauce with slivered ginger is a bracing foil for the dumplings’ intensity.

Image

Its dumplings are house-made.CreditMatt Rainey for The New York Times

The head chef at Shanghai Bun is Chung Hwang; his wife, Hiu Lam, is the owner. Mr. Hwang was born in Taiwan — his Shanghainese father taught him to cook. He worked with his father at their restaurant in Virginia until his father retired about 15 years ago, when he and his wife came to New Jersey with their children.

Having sold the other two restaurants to family members, Mr. Hwang and Ms. Lam are now focusing their energies here — “so far so good,” Mr. Hwang said on the phone after my visits. The new Shanghai Bun, which is around 10 months old, is encouragingly busy on weekends, and Mr. Hwang said he did not expect business to be disrupted by a planned redevelopment of the mall this summer.

At 11 a.m. on a Sunday, as we were the first to arrive, an employee flicked on the lights for us. Before long, the place was full. Dim sum here means ordering from the regular menu rather than flagging down carts. Pork and chive buns were crisped on the griddle, lending a good crunch to the spongy dough, also homemade. Those pork buns sang of the transition to springtime, a comfort food in bud with green, bitey chives. Likewise, tender sha cha beef was accompanied by baby bok choy and juicy slices of green Chinese squash.

As for other ways to dress a meatball, won ton wrappers were delicate and cooked just enough — though several things the menu labels “spicy,” like the won tons and the simply prepared cucumber in spicy sauce, seemed merely to be dressed with chili oil.

Image

Its sha cha beef is served with baby bok choy and Chinese squash.CreditMatt Rainey for The New York Times

A “sesame beef sandwich” recommended by our waiter came on a pressed, toasted sesame bun. Inside, sliced cold beef was on the chewy side, but fresh cilantro, tangy plum sauce and slivers of cold cucumber and scallion provided contrast.

Noodles with hot peanut sauce was the spiciest dish we tried, arriving hot and al dente, in a bowl of piquant, deep red sauce, garnished with minced peanut, scallion and a mound of cucumber. You may choose your meat, which isn’t much more than a condiment. Though the noodles at Shanghai Noodle House in Edison are made in house, here in Princeton Junction there is no room for the process. No matter — they are hardly less fresh.

Rice noodles come in big, shareable soups. We tried one soup with spicy pork intestine, which had good flavor and was almost as tender as the noodles. But the soup, again not terribly spicy, also had plenty of tripe, which was chewier, texturally distracting and perhaps best appreciated by those who happen to like tripe.

Vegetarians might miss out on the restaurant’s main strengths, but eight specials do appear on a vegetarian list at the end of the menu. Also missing are alcoholic beverages — customers can bring their own beer and wine — and dessert. But with touches of sweetness amid the crunch, tang and substance on the menu, we found no need to save room.

Our most unassuming-looking dish was a plate of fish fillets in rice wine sauce with a mix of shiitake and wood-ear mushrooms, brightened with whole scallions. But the white fish was delicate and moist, the flavors perfectly balanced. It reminded me of the restaurant itself — a pleasant surprise behind its modest appearance.

IF YOU GO Open Mondays and Wednesdays to Fridays for lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and for dinner, 5 to 9:30 p.m.; open Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., when the dinner menu is served. Closed Tuesdays. No reservations. Plenty of parking in the shopping-center lot.